First Round Capital

Most people describe finding PMF as an art, not a science. We're here to change that. Introducing PMF Method. After 20 years and 500+ investments in pre-product-market fit companies, we've drawn on our data and worked with some of the world's most iconic enterprise founders, distilling what they did in their first 6 months into a free 14-week intensive experience that helps sales-led B2B founders build epic companies. In tactical sessions, we help early founders discover what customers really want, build the right v1 product, and close your first sales — all while keeping 100% of your equity. You'll work alongside a tight group of other builders at your same stage, and get to learn from the hard-earned insights from founders of $1B+ B2B companies, like Vanta's Christina Cacioppo, Looker's lloyd tabb, Plaid's Zachary Perret, Ironclad's Jason Boehmig, Lattice's Jack Altman, and Verkada's Filip Kaliszan. The Summer 2024 session of PMF Method runs from 5/29 to 8/28. Any early founder working on a new B2B SaaS company is welcome to apply — just get your application in by 5/7 (or tag a founder friend below!) More details, FAQs, and application link in the comments below 👇

Ever since ChatGPT exploded onto the scene in late 2022, OpenAI hasn't had an awareness problem. With over 100 million weekly active users, the spectrum of consumer use cases runs the gamut from planning vacation itineraries to searching for vegan recipes. On the In Depth podcast, VP of Marketing Krithika M. shares why the seemingly infinite number of use cases is her team’s number one challenge when positioning the product, and the strategy she is taking to get ahead of it.

Super thoughtful approach to org design highlighted in this week's First Round Capital Review. When I read it, I realized that simplistic advice is a poor shortcut to the more complex but useful advice, "structure follows strategy". “When you read management books about org design, they always show you these perfectly balanced charts. Symmetrical tree diagrams and curated grids that fill up to the margins. But creating a pretty looking chart is not a KPI,” says Linear’s Head of Product Nan Yu. Yu unpacks why conventional thinking around org design is slowing startups down. Instead, he pulls from Conway’s Law and lays out the three key pieces to constructing the asymmetrical “heirloom tomato” org chart. https://lnkd.in/gASyChQC

While peeling off your product team into smaller, equally-sized teams may feel like the right structural move to keep your startup focused, you also might be unintentionally promoting “kingdom-building.” “If you take ambitious people like PMs, designers and engineers, and put them in a little box, they are going to overbuild,” Nan Yu, Head of Product Linear, explains. “They are going to figure out all the nooks and crannies and fill out every corner of that box, and when you’re not looking, they’ll make that product bigger.” Yu argues this is a natural consequence of the management theory known as Conway’s Law. “If you are told that your only purpose at the company is to build within the confines of a small team, and your performance is tied directly back to that one thing, you are gonna ship the heck out of that thing,” he says. So, rather than slice off a handful of small teams with even numbers working on a slightly different part of the product, Yu is in favor of letting teams grow to cover a larger surface and maintain flexibility. But if you absolutely have to break apart your core product team, make sure to do expectation setting beforehand, such as documenting kill criteria in a written strategy to steer the team when focus gets scattered. “At some point, what these teams are working on might be done. It’s perfectly fine to say ‘Hey, team you fulfilled your purpose you don’t need to exist anymore,’” he says. More tactics for how to optimize your team structure for speed in the latest on the Review.

I gave a talk earlier this year at Figma Config, about org-chart design in startups. We worked with our friends at First Round Capital to write up a companion piece, with more details and examples. Take a look if you wanted to know more, or if you prefer reading to watching videos! The original talk is here: https://lnkd.in/esxpSc5U

“When you read management books about org design, they always show you these perfectly balanced charts. Symmetrical tree diagrams and curated grids that fill up to the margins. But creating a pretty-looking chart is not a KPI,” Nan Yu, Linear’s Head of Product says. While it may look good on paper, narrowing the product scope into several, small and even-sized teams can be detrimental to your startup’s focus. This week on the Review, Yu unpacks why conventional thinking around org design is slowing startups down and lays out the three key pieces to constructing a flavorful, asymmetric “heirloom tomato” org chart instead.

“Conway’s Law is so commonly referenced in Silicon Valley at this point it’s almost a meme. But I still don’t think we take it seriously enough. Because your product will be a mirror of your teams. You will ship your org chart.” Linear's Nan Yu gave a 🔥 talk on org chart design at Figma Config last month — so we knew we had to get him on The Review to dive even deeper into this often overlooked topic. In this three-part framework, he explains why founders and product leaders should over-provision the teams working on what makes their product unique, optimizing for an “heirloom tomato” shaped org chart, instead of the perfectly symmetrical structure we all tend to see. Read the full article at the link in the comments.

One of the better articles/interviews I’ve ever read on building a startup. Without this story you might have thought Clay was an overnight success. Product principles, “the spiral”, and honing the ICP - all resonate with me. Thanks First Round Capital and Kareem Amin for sharing.

The difference between good and great teams? A “we haven’t won yet” mentality. It’s such a powerful motivator — and one of my biggest lessons from my time at Stripe. So glad Krithika M. stopped by First Round Capital’s In Depth podcast today to chat with my partner Brett Berson about how she now applies that mindset at OpenAI. “Oftentimes in the market leadership position, you kind of can get into a sense of complacency. One of the operating values at Stripe when I was there which has changed and evolved over time, was that we haven't won yet. And it was a mentality that was deeply ingrained into the DNA of the company. It meant that even when we were in the leadership position, we never took that for granted. I bring that to me anywhere I go. So even with OpenAI, 𝗶𝘁'𝘀 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗲. And we combine that with our sense of responsibility to bring AI very responsibly into the world and help our customers navigate the pathways ahead. I make sure that the team is taking 110% at every at-bat that we get.” Link to the full episode in the comments.

In need of some marketing inspiration? Don’t just look over your competitors’ shoulders — take a page from what’s working well outside of your industry. “Keeping too close of an eye on your competitors leads to local maximization instead of the global phase shift changes that you could be making,” says Krithika M., VP of Marketing at OpenAI (ex-Stripe and Retool). At Stripe, the marketing team frequently borrowed ideas from domains totally unrelated to payments. One clever example: Stripe organized a “capture the flag” tournament, which is typically reserved for cyber security pros. Over 10,000 devs ended up participating — and many of the winners later became Stripe engineers.